Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and in the town there will be one mad rush to get all the essentials bought and of course a lot of non-essential things as well. For those of you who are musically inclined it is a very special day, for on this day you will be trying to listen to the BBC World Service which broadcasts the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, the choir of which produces one of the most beautiful sounds on earth on this day.
Today, however, you will all be trying to get things organised in the garden so that your plants do not suffer during the holiday and the inevitable break in routine which occurs at this time. A garden without any life forms in it except plants is a sterile kind of a place, and as dull as dishwater. Fortunately such gardens are rare indeed, for the fact of the matter is that with nearly all our plants there is an inter-relationship between with animals, birds and insects to the point that in many cases they are utterly dependent upon each other for things like shade, protection, and so on. I am lucky to have a garden full of insects, birds, small animals, the odd reptile and human being – many of them helping in the process of pollination and pest control and giving added interest to the place.
If you take a look around your garden today or tomorrow you will find dozens of plants in flower or in bud. I compare it with last year’s list. I had forty-one plants in flower on Christmas Eve last. My garden in England is now under a foot of snow and silent as the grave, the only sign of life outside being my winter flowering jasmine, the delicate tracks of birds in the snow and the larger tracks of the vixen fox which has been resident in the nearby wood for several years. She is described as an urban fox, and in the hardest winter she raids the refuse bins for bits and pieces and also nearby chicken pens.
I am told by e-mail that my pale yellow form of winter flowering jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum),is covered with thousands of flowers and is the only bit of brilliance in the district. There are no butterflies, no hummingbirds, no blue sakis, no golden aureoles as there are at my home in New Providence. In my English garden with the temperature hovering about nought degrees Celsius there will be nothing done until the snow and frost goes away – walking on frozen lawns is never done because it causes severe damage. In England, apart from a few hardy species like the robin, birds tend to keep their heads down. Many freeze to death. In winter insect activity is zero.
Here at home in Guyana birds display their exotic plumage, seeking shade only in the heat of the day when the temperature in the shade is about 32C during the hottest part of the day, and the consumption of rum at any time is merely a sociable activity not a life-saving one. Damage to the lawns is done by walking on them when they are soaking wet. No snow (yet) in New Providence. In many parts of the West Indies snow on the mountain is in full flower This Christmas those I have are bearing just a few flowers rather than a mass, but they’re better than nothing at all. I do hope that your plants stand up to the strain and that they are not being neglected. For the sake of them and yourselves don’t drink and drive. Get a designated driver who’ll remain ‘dry’ for the night, and may your God go with you.
